Our democracy shall rest on universal suffrage. Women shall be placed on equal footing with men, politically, socially, and culturally. The rights of the minority shall be safeguarded by proportional representation; national minorities shall enjoy equal rights. The government shall be parliamentary in form and shall recognize the principles of the initiative and referendum. The standing army will be replaced by militia.

The Czechoslovak Nation will carry out far-reaching social and economic reforms; the large estates will be redeemed for home colonization; patents of nobility will be abolished.

Our nation will assume its part of the Austro-Hungarian pre-war public debt; the debts for this war we leave to those who incurred them.

In its foreign policy the Czechslovak Nation will accept its full share of responsibility in the reorganization of Eastern Europe. It accepts fully the democratic and social principle of nationalism and subscribes to the doctrine that all covenants and treaties shall be entered into openly and frankly without secret diplomacy.

Our Constitution shall provide an efficient, rational, and just government, which will exclude all special privileges and prohibit class legislation.

Democracy has defeated theocratic autocracy. Militarism is overcome-democracy is victorious; on the basis of democracy, mankind will be reorganized. The forces of darkness have served the victory of light-the longed-for age of humanity is dawning.

WE BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY, WE BELIEVE IN
LIBERTY-AND LIBERTY EVERMORE

Given in Paris, on the eighteenth day of October, 1918.

PROFESSOR THOMAS G. MASARYK,

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. GENERAL DR. MILAN R. STEFANIK, Minister of National Defense.

DR. EDWARD BENES,

Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Interior.

DECLARATION OF PARIS

ASSOCIATED PRESS DISPATCH-A diplomatic instrument or protocol signed by the representatives of all the powers present at the Congress of Paris in 1856, and subsequently accepted as a binding engagement of public law by all the other powers (except the United States of America, Spain, and Mexico), for the purpose of settling and defining certain rules of maritime law, in time of war, on points of great moment to belligerent and neutral states-points, it must be added, upon which the ancient law of nations had gradually undergone some change, and on which great differences of opinion and practice prevailed. The four propositions agreed to by the plenipotentiaries were embodied in the following terms:

1. Privateering is and remains abolished.

2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband of war.

3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under an enemy's flag.

4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective-that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient readily to prevent access to the coast of the enemy.

By most of the modern writers on international law these principles are regarded as a distinct gain to the cause of civilization, international justice, commerce, and peace. But a feeble and ineffectual attempt has been made to repudiate these new rules of maritime law, though they received the tacit assent of Parliament, and have been acted upon by all nations in the six wars which have occured since 1856, including the American civil war, although the United States had not concurred in the Declaration. The American Government withheld its assent, not because it objected to these principles, but because it held that they did not go far enough, and that they ought to be extended to secure from capture all private property at sea. It is argued by the opponents of the Declaration that the British envoy at Paris exceeded his powers; that the form of the instrument itself is declaratory, but not binding either as a contract or a legislative act; that it is not competent to a congress to change the rights of belligerents founded on ancient law and usage; and that Great Britain committed a fatal error in renouncing the right to seize enemy's goods in neutral ships and to equip privateers.

CONSTITUTION OF THE GERMAN REPUBLIC.

FULL TEXT OF NEW BASIC LAW OF THE NATION, ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AT WEIMAR.

The National Constituent Assembly of Germany, elected on Jan. 19, 1919, after many months of deliberation adopted the following Constitution for the new republic on July 31, and it became effective on August 13. During this whole period the Constituent Assembly fulfilled the functions of the Reichstag. Under the Constitution the Reichstag, elected in accordance with the new basic law, will resume its functions. The National Council forms a sort of upper house, corresponding largely to the Federal Council of the Empire. The revision of Article 61, which provides for the admission of Austria' delegates to the National Council, has been formally demanded by the Peace Conference at Paris. The text of the Constitution is as follows:

PREAMBLE.-The German people, united in all its branches and with the determination to build up and strengthen its domain in liberty and justice, to preserve peace, both at home and abroad, and to foster social progress, has adopted the following Constitution:

COMPOSITION AND FUNCTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT

ARTICLE 1. The German National State is a Republic. The power of the State is derived from the people.

ARTICLE 2. The territory of the nation consists of the territories of the German States. Other territories may be taken into the Government by national law, when their inhabitants, by a vote of self-determination, express such a desire.

ARTICLE 3. The national colors are black-red-gold. The trade flag is black-white-red, with the national colors on the upper inside

corner.

ARTICLE 4. The universally recognized principles of the laws of nations are accepted as binding elements of the laws of the German Nation.

ARTICLE 5. The power of the National State shall be exercised through the agencies of the Government on the basis of the Constitution in all matters affecting the nation, and in all matters affecting the respective States through the agencies of such States on the basis of their respective Constitutions.

ARTICLE 6. The Government has the exclusive right of legislation over:

3. State property, right of changing residence, immigration and emigration, and extradition.

4. Military organization.

5. Coinage.

6. Customs, including the unification of customs and trade districts and the free circulation of wares.

7. Posts, telegraphs, and telephones.

ARTICLE 7.—The Government has right of legislation over:
1. Civil law.

3. Judicial proceedings, including the execution of penalties and co-operation between departments.

4. Passports and police for aliens.

5. Poor laws and vagrancy.

6. Press, associations, and assemblies.

7. Population policy; provisions affecting maternity, nurslings, young children and adolescents.

8. National health, veterinaries, protection of plants from disease and pests.

9. Labor law, insurance, and protection of workmen and employes and employment agencies.

10. The organization of trade representation in the nation. 11. Provision for war veterans and their survivors.

12. The right of alienation of property.

13. The socialization of natural treasures and economic undertakings, as well as the production, organization, distribution, and evaluation of economic goods for the community.

14. Trade, weights and measures, issue of paper money, banks and stock exchanges.

15. Traffic in food articles and luxuries, as well as objects of daily need.

16. Industrial pursuits and mining.

17. Insurance.

18. Navigation, fishing on the high sea and along the coasts. 19. Railways, internal navigation, communication by vehicles propelled by power on land, on sea, and in the air, construction of highways, in so far as general communications and national defense are concerned.

20. Theatres and cinematographs.

ARTICLE 8. The Government further possesses legislative power over taxes and other sources of income, in so far as they may be claimed in whole or in part for its purposes. In the event that the

Government claims taxes or other forms of income which formerly belonged to its confederated States, it will be bound to consider the maintenance of such States' vital means of support.

ARTICLE 9. Whenever a need for centralized control occurs the Government has a right of legislation over:

1. Community welfare.

2. Protection of public order and security.

ARTICLE 10. The Government in respect to legislation may lay down principles for:

1. The rights and duties of religious associations.

2. Schools, high schools, and scientific publications.

3. The official rights of all public bodies.

4. Land rights, land divisions, settlements and homesteads, title or landed property, habitations, and distribution of inhabitants.

5. Interments.

ARTICLE 11.-The Government in respect to legislation may lay down principles for the permissibility and mode of collection of taxes, in order to prevent:

1. Injury to income or to trade relations of the nation.

2. Double taxation.

3. Excessive and burdensome taxes on the use of public ways of communication which hinder traffic, and of tollways.

4. Tax disadvantages of imported wares as compared with domestic products in trade between the various States and State districts, or,

5. To exclude or to conserve important communal interests. ARTICLE 12. So long and in so far as the Government makes no use of its right of legislation, the confederated States possess the right of legislation. This does not apply to the exclusive legislation of the Government.

The Government has the right, wherever the welfare of the community is involved, to veto laws of confederated States related to the objects of Article 7, Section 13.

ARTICLE 13. Government law transcends States' law. In case there should arise doubt or difference of opinion as to whether State legislation is in harmony with Government legislation, the proper officials of the Government or the central State officials, according to the specific prescription of a Government law, may resort to the decision of the highest national court.

ARTICLE 14. The laws of the Government will be exercised through the State officials, unless the national laws provide otherwise.

ARTICLE 15. The Government administration exercises supervision in matters over which the nation has the right of legislation.